It is hard to believe that school is but a memory. The temperatures have quickly elevated such that I lie on top of the bedspread instead of snuggled beneath the covers. My nightly ritual of watching dandy shows like Toddlers... Continue reading

We specifically moved into a different school district after my son's kindergarten year. It is amazing what difference the right educational atmosphere makes! My son is now entering the 4th grade this fall, and I am so thankful for the way the teachers and administrators treat us in our current district.
We are so lucky to be where we are - because it is quite different than where we were when my son was in preschool and kindergarten! (Props to his kindergarten teacher - who was FABULOUS! - for suggesting we move to a more accommodating district. She was wonderful, but she knew the support overall wasn't there in that other district.)
I am glad to hear that you are in a place where the students are loved and supported. Terrific!

Last Friday, I picked my son up from school as I do every day. He is in a "special day class," a full time autism preschool program run by our school district. My husband and I didn't know we would need this type of thing when we moved into our current house. We weren't even married yet, let a...

Ah, I feel ya. I knew every single trash can in NYC when I was pregnant with my first. And we purchased a steam cleaner that spent its entire life cleaning up my various productions on our carpet when I was pregnant with my second.
One memorable experience was crossing the street in the Upper East Side -- those ladies with their tiny dogs probably thought I was a junkie as I vomited down my sweater sleeve. After all, there are no trash cans in the middle of the street.
Hoping it lets up soon for you. Best of luck!

When I was pregnant with my son six years ago, I didn’t have any morning sickness. I barely suffered through two weeks of a little queasiness and food aversions. It was nothing. I was always smug about the fact that pregnancy and me got along so well. Two peas in a pod were we. Sure, I felt so...

These tiny cement blocks caught my eye because in the midst of stacked lumber and other generic construction materials, they are unexpected little sugar cubes grouped together in the corner of what will soon be the door to our shed. By Karianna Continue reading

One of my pet peeves as a child was when adults thought I was younger than I was. I’ve taken that sensitivity with me, such that one of my pet peeves as a mother is when other adults assume my two boys are less capable than they are. Of course most of these adults are just trying to make frien...

This is admittedly a strange one. I was sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper. I looked towards my computer sitting on the coffee table in front of me. Above is the image I saw. I thought it was cool, so grabbed my camera. These are my neighbor's trees through a sliding glass door as reflected by my computer monitor. Funky, but it created the nice melted blurring on the edges (and the black border is the edge of my laptop monitor.) By Karianna Continue reading

A fine way to end 2009; taken at 11:30pm Dec 31st. The kids begged me to go outside, thinking the moon itself would be blue - and would therefore be much more exciting than watching looped footage from the Ball Drop three hours ago. (We are on the west coast.) To our delight, the clouds ended up creating a blue effect. By Karianna Continue reading

Share The Lovely List and WIN! {If you entered to win in July/August, then please read below because entry rules have changed} To win one of these lovelies just spread the word about The LOVELY List on your blog by adding a button or text link to your sidebar (with links back to my site www.t...

Share The Lovely List and WIN! {If you entered to win in July/August, then please read below because entry rules have changed} To win one of these lovelies just spread the word about The LOVELY List on your blog by adding a button or text link to your sidebar (with links back to my site www.t...

This is another in a series of posts I'm writing about my search for a new car to replace my current Volvo. Catch up with the entire series here. I was not prepared for all the attention I got the first day I picked my daughter up from school in a Lexus RX450h -- all from the other parents. "...

My kids are young (8 and 5) so I haven't even considered this yet -- but reading this post made me think of the first time I brought home a boy: I just assumed it was OK, but my parents were nervous. We ended up sleeping in the living room "sleepover style" in sleeping bags. It was fun!
Subsequent visits he slept in the fold-out while I slept in my room. We didn't sneak around because we found no need -- when we were at his place we slept in the same bed. There was never any question from his single dad that it was totally fine for us to be in the same bed. Ironically enough, we never had sex - it was just about cuddling together and being together.
For the "coming home from college" trips, the boyfriends always slept on the fold-out and I in my bed. This was true even for the days leading up to my wedding. The night before the wedding, my parents requested that my husband-to-be sleep in a hotel so we'd be separate until the actual wedding. (At that time we had been living together for 18 months so it was purely symbolic.)

"We will not be like our parents when we have our own kids." How many of you have made that proclamation? Not that we had bad parents, I surely did not. I was raised by a loving, relatively liberal couple who supported most of my hair-brained schemes whole-heartedly – within reason. But there...

Exactly. I see from some of the comments here that the parents ARE involved -- they schedule an activity for the kids to to together. And yet I remember being happiest as a child when the adults were essentially absent - we were allowed to play dress-up without worrying about adult "approval." The parents who wanted to supervise too closely made me uncomfortable, as though the playdate was an extension of school.
The worst is when the parent seems to believe that they are sticking around -- suddenly it becomes a Parent Playdate, and that is pretty uncomfortable - especially if I *thought* I'd be otherwise getting work done.

My older son asked me, "Did I ever have a playdate?" It was an interesting question, and I wondered why is he asking now? I fumbled around a bit with an answer about playgroups when he was a toddler, but that how now he goes to soccer practice so plays with kids there. "And when your brother ...

Initially I thought you were on to something... but then I remembered how I'd tell the teachers/therapists about how my sons spontaneously play with their neighbors ("doesn't count" because it isn't a pre-scheduled 'oh you are a good friend of mine' type thing) and how they want to put him in "facilitated play" during recesses so that the playtime is NOT just free play.
It used to be that recess and time with the neighbors was his "just enjoy the play" - but it seems the teachers/therapists want more "scheduled" time - sort of what some of the other commenters here have explained - full out "you are going to paint a box on this playdate." And that sort of thing just tires me out thinking about it because I agree that "free play" would be so much more fun than these forced dates that seem... well... forced!

My older son asked me, "Did I ever have a playdate?" It was an interesting question, and I wondered why is he asking now? I fumbled around a bit with an answer about playgroups when he was a toddler, but that how now he goes to soccer practice so plays with kids there. "And when your brother ...

4:30 - The day starts like any other day. Matthew woke me up at 4:30am, and I was awake until 5:30. And then (my wife) Sharon's alarm went off at 6, so I got a whopping 1/2 hour extra of sleep. Yay. 6:30 - I got in the shower. 6:45 - Out of the shower, nobody's eating yet despite my wanting t...

I was up early thanks to my alarm Margot and the refried bean fajitas I had last night. Running tip #4791: Do not eat anything with beans the night before you run. I arrived to the race fairly early. Okay, really early. I should have reminded myself that this is a pretty small race since we're...

I remember feeling SICK when I first heard of this story. Then it has been followed by various other pieces of media spouting the "extra cost" that special needs kids apparently take from health insurance (not mine, which won't cover such things!)the rumors about how it is just lazy parents who give excuses for their "bad" kids' behavior, and so forth.
It is amazing how spectrum and other sensory/behavioral issues are portrayed versus how "medical" problems are seen. Blame for one, pity for the other. Neither very effective.
The hope Alex "will get the help he needs" brings up a concept that I have had to fight time and time again. As you and I know, "getting help" does not really mean HELP. It isn't a magic bullet that suddenly turns the child "normal."
Time and time again, I've gotten the quizzical stare with "have you considered getting him help?". Why YES, of COURSE I've attempted to get my son HELP. Every step of the way, new professionals (doctors, therapists, teachers) wonder the same.
But "getting help" is not "curing." It isn't erasing problems. In fact, "getting help" is a process that is very difficult, much more so than ignoring the problem. "Getting help" means doing things like mainstreaming, because to hide someone like Alex in a MORE restrictive environment isn't helping him if he is capable of a mainsteam classroom. The law says "least restrictive" for a reason: kids can live up to expectations, but they can also "live down" to them.
"Getting help" is a struggle in many ways - and clearly the actions of this teacher illustrate why.

I do not know Wendy Portillo personally. Nor do I know the parents of Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida. But what I DO know is that in my opinion Ms. Portillo should never see the inside of a classroom again. No matter what her School Board says. No matter what the par...

Darn it. I was SO hoping that this would be a fun game. But... thank you for letting us know to pass, because I was going to buy it as soon as we got our Wii fixed (yes, that is how much we love our Wii -- the lens has actually worn out!) But, I know to spend the money elsewhere now.

I was pretty excited to get the Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 Wii Game because I owe a good 12lbs of my weight loss to her. And I suppose my ability to do real push-ups. So last night, I finally ripped open the packaging and gave her a whirl (heh). The game itself is staged in a boo...

Oh, for us it is the soccer shirt.
And the soccer shorts.
And the soccer socks.
No matter how often I put them IN the laundry, somehow they crawl out, only to be found in a dirty mound somewhere.
For next year, I bought two pairs of shorts and four pairs of socks (two light, two dark.) But the jerseys themselves are so darn expensive that I settled for the standard two (one home, one away.)
Of course now that they aren't in use, all of those "old" jerseys are neatly in my son's drawer. He wears them to school all the time (which I find rather odd.)

I just got word that my son's Little League team has made it into the championships. And my first reaction was "oh no! now I won't be able to clean his shirt." I haven't washed the shirt for about five weeks. It disappears after every game, only found by kismet, cosmic luck, and sheer despera...